To run in ones beard. To offer opposition to a person; to do something obnoxious to a person before his face. The French say, à la barbe de quelquun, under ones very nose.

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With the beard on the shoulder (Spanish). In the attitude of listening to overhear something, with circumspection, looking in all directions for surprises and ambuscades.

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They rode, as the Spanish proverb expresses it, with the beard on the shoulder, looking round from time to time, and using every precaution against pursuit.Sir W. Scott: Peveril of the Peak, chap. vii.

Tax upon beards. Peter the Great imposed a tax upon beards. Every one above the lowest class had to pay 100 roubles, and the lowest class had to pay a copec, for enjoying this luxury. Clerks were stationed at the gates of every town to collect the beard-tax.